My name is Alondra Fajardo and I am twenty one years old. My family decided to move to Las Vegas from California when I was five years old. My family and I lived in west Los Angeles, near Culver City, it was not a very safe area. I remember clearly one day my cousin came knocking at the front door, panicking he told us a tree was caught on fire, turns out, gang members burned down the palm tree! That among other events lead to my parents decision of packing up and heading east.
We settled down and rented a three bedroom house. It was so much bigger than the tiny one bedroom house he had for the four of us. Life was great for a couple of years, but then I got sick. On November 25th 2009 I came home after school and threw up the little dinner I had just started eating. I blamed the Mac n cheese I ate at school earlier that day. The next morning my mom made some oatmeal for breakfast and I tried eating it and I threw up again. This cycle continued for three months. Everything I ate or drank I threw up, I lost 20 pounds in the span of those thee months. More things began happening, both of my ankles got extremely swollen, if I pressed down on them it would mimic the memory foam pillows and leave an impression. Every joint in my body was swollen and hurt to move which made walking a newly impossible task. One night I fell asleep on the sofa and when I woke I had nearly no mobility in my neck, if I needed to turn either way I had to turn my whole body in order to see beside me. In the span of those three months I went to so many Doctors, one told me I had a very bad cold and gave me antibiotics to treat it, another one said I was depressed and that I was doing all this for attention. On February 13th I went to a different doctor, one who was recommended to my mom by one of her coworkers. Doctor Elsa Von Schulenburg was my saver. As soon as she laid eyes on me she knew something was not right, I had countless amounts of lab works done on me in order to determine what was wrong. The next day we got the results, Lupus. I was 10 years old diagnosed with lupus, never in my life had I seen my parents cry, that was the day I saw them sob. I started crying too, I did not know what lupus was but I knew it was bad, I asked the doctor, "why me?" she told me this just happens, and that it is possible she would wake up with a tumor tomorrow. Eleven years later and I am healthy and still alive, I did not end up having lupus, but Mixed Connective Tissue disease which is similar to it but not quite the same. The life expectancy of someone with MCTD is only ten years, I have lived longer than that so I am proud of that accomplishment. Many years later On September 13th 2017 I opened a tinder account, I was tired of being single, and wanted to meet the love of my life. On September 14th 2017, the next day, a twenty two year old man by the name of Aaron appeared on my screen, he had the most beautiful smile I had ever seen, I swiped right and it was an instant match. We recently celebrated our one year anniversary as much as it pains me to say it he is getting ready for a four month deployment very far from here. I have seen this wonderful man nearly every weekend since September 2017, not seeing him for four months will be very difficult and emotionally straining for me. Im already excited for the day he comes back from that far away land, I will probably get him a cake, few beers and some barbecue ribs. While my airman is away I decided to fill up my schedule with as many classes as possible and take up more hours at work to try and fill up my time and not get too sad. Wish me luck with this crazy semester! Thank you for reading the summary of my life, Alondra Fajardo |
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